Author: Nalin Mehta
Publication: NDTV.com
Date: May 24, 2003
URL: http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=Ceasefire&slug=Army+destroys+terror+base+in+Jammu&id=38412&callid=1
In an operation code named Sarp
Vinash, the Army has destroyed a huge terrorist training and support base
at Hill Kaka, south of the Pir Panjal range in Jammu.
The heavily fortified terrorist
base, built about 35 km inside Indian territory, was used by at least 20
terrorist groups for joint training and coordinating activities across
the country.
As many as 62 of the 300-350 terrorists
suspected to be manning the Hill Kaka base have been killed in this operation
and the Army is still searching for those who have escaped.
It's been the Army's biggest battle
for the past two months now. That's when the Army's Romeo Force attacked
a huge terrorist supply base at Hill Kaka.
Terror groups including the Lashkar
have been based here for the past 3-4 years, using Hill Kaka as a base
for joint training and planning.
Using an INMARSAT phone, the terrorists
used the base to coordinate activities in places like Mumbai, Ahmedabad,
Kolkata, Kanpur, Kerala, Ranchi and Aligarh, while keeping in touch with
their bosses in Pakistan.
The terrorists had built huge fortifications
and bunkers were built deep inside Indian territory, some of them so inaccessible
that helicopter gunships had to be used to destroy them.
The Army says the bases could not
have been sustained without Pakistani support.
"Looking at the supplies we've got
- the medicines, the guns - they all have Pakistani markings," said Maj
Gen Hardev Liddar, GoC, Romeo Force.
There are echoes of Kargil here.
Large groups of terrorists infiltrating across the LoC and building huge
fortifications on the mountains.
The bases have now been wiped out.
But while India and Pakistan once again tread on the road to peace, the
fact is that on the ground, nothing seems to have changed, with no let-up
in cross- border infiltration or terrorist activity.
